{"id":327404,"date":"2026-05-01T14:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=327404"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:51:25","slug":"fifa-president-tries-to-stage-israel-palestine-handshake-that-goes-all-mistaken-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/fifa-president-tries-to-stage-israel-palestine-handshake-that-goes-all-mistaken-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa president tries to stage Israel-Palestine handshake that goes all mistaken | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Fifa president Gianni Infantino\u2019s try and orchestrate a handshake between Israel and Palestine football officials failed spectacularly in a heated moment on the Fifa Congress.<\/p>\n

Infantino invited the president of the Palestinian football federation Jibril Rajoub\u00a0to hitch him on stage alongside Israel FA Vice-President Basim Sheikh Suliman in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Each men had spoken in front of a whole bunch of delegates, with Suliman remaining in stage after his address.<\/p>\n

After inviting Rajoub back on stage, Infantinio called for each men to face closer to him with Rajoub declining the photo op, making his protests known. Unperturbed, Infantino put his hand on Rajoub\u2019s arm and gestured for him to return closer again.<\/p>\n

As Suliman stood motionless, Infantino and Rajoub\u2019s conversation grew more impassioned conversation with the words largely not audible to those within the room or watching Fifa\u2019s live stream.<\/p>\n

Asked what Rajoub said when he refused, Palestinian FA Vice-President Susan Shalabi, who was within the room, told\u00a0Reuters: \u2018I cannot shake the hand of somebody the Israelis have dropped at whitewash their fascism and \u2060genocide. We’re suffering.\u2019<\/p>\n

Because the two delegates stood apart, Infantino returned to the rostrum alone.<\/p>\n

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Palestinian FA president Jibril Rajoub walks away from Infantino (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Rajoub refuses to face along with Israel Football Association Vice-President Basim Sheikh Suliman (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Let me please say something,\u2019 Infantino said. \u2018Let me thank the 2 representatives from Israel and from Palestine, who’ve the identical rights, duties and obligations, who’re members of FIFA. We are going to work together, let\u2019s work together to provide hope to the kids, let\u2019s work together for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Now we have a stupendous under-15 tournament coming up, where we’ll invite all 211 countries to participate, all the kids of the world, let\u2019s do it for that. Let\u2019s work together, you’ve got my commitment, you’ve got the support of the entire room.\u2019<\/p>\n

Infantino then hugged each men individually as they left the stage.<\/p>\n

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Infantino tried to persuade Rajoub to hitch him closer on stage (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Infantino went onto confirm his intentions to face for re-election for a 3rd fill term as Fifa president next yr.<\/p>\n

But his attempts to orchestrate the he handshake were described as \u2018absurd\u2019.<\/p>\n

Palestinian FA Vice-President Shalabi said: \u2018To be put able where to \u200chave a handshake after every little thing that was said, this \u200cnegates the entire purpose of the speech that the final (Rajoub) was giving.<\/p>\n

\u2018He spent like quarter-hour trying to elucidate to everyone how the principles matter, how this might easily turn into a precedent where the rights of \u2060member associations are violated with impudence, after which we\u2019ll just wrap this under the carpet. It was absurd.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Inside Coldplay\u2019s World Cup 2026 halftime show as Global Citizen boss teases production<\/span><\/p>\n

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Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Israeli soldier pictured smashing up a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer<\/span><\/p>\n

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To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an internet browser that supports HTML5 video Fifa president Gianni Infantino\u2019s try and orchestrate a handshake between Israel and Palestine football officials failed spectacularly in a heated moment on the Fifa Congress. Infantino invited the president of the Palestinian football federation Jibril Rajoub\u00a0to hitch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":327405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[6047,5479,33145,37951,431,1042,7364],"class_list":["post-327404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-handshake","tag-israelpalestine","tag-president","tag-stage","tag-wrong"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":327407,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327404\/revisions\/327407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}